Aquatic Research and Conservation Center

BPNFCF currently has refuge populations of loach minnow (four genetic lineages), spikedace (all three extant lineages), roundtail chub (three lineages), Gila chub, woundfin, Gila topminnow (two lineages), and desert pupfish. These fish are held as protection against catastrophic loss of wild populations. For example, the 2012 Whitewater Baldy Fire in New Mexico may have extirpated the loach minnow population in the San Francisco River; the 39 fish salvaged and transported to BPNFCF may be the only surviving fish of that lineage. We also propagate our refuge populations to found new wild populations in protected streams. Establishing new wild populations is critical to the survival of these species and their eventual down-listing from endangered status. We also maintain populations of razorback sucker, humpback chub, bonytail, desert sucker, Sonora sucker, speckled dace, longfin dace, and a variety of non-native species. These fish are held for research and educational purposes. Please contact us if you have interest in collaborating on work with these rare species.

More than half of the BPNFCF annual operating costs are obtained through research contracts. The staff at BPNFCF therefore develops research projects to compete for state and federal grants and contracts. Due to the mission of hatchery and the native fish held on station, our work focuses on problems and questions about desert fishes. Because repatriation efforts are a critical function of BPNFCF, much of our work focuses on improving post-stocking survival of hatchery-reared fish.

Hatcheries typically raise fish in environments most conducive to high growth and survival, but this environment is extremely dissimilar to wild conditions. Hatchery fish are typically stocked naïve to predators, unprepared to find and capture their own food, unaware of wild environments and seasonal variation, and unable to swim fast and long enough to maintain station in flowing water. Hatchery fish therefore have notoriously low long-term survival rates, and nowhere is this more evident than with repatriation efforts for native desert fishes. For example, only a few thousand razorbacks and virtually no bonytail survive in the lower Colorado River basin from year to year despite a massive and expensive stocking effort. BPNFCF is working to improve the survival rates of stocked native fishes in a variety of ways.

One source of mortality of stocked fish is predators. This is certainly a problem in the lower Colorado River, where non-native striped bass and flathead catfish may be the main source of mortality (Marsh report). Razorbacks and bonytail did not evolve in the presence of these large piscivores, and consequently are naïve to the threat of predation by these fish. Our work uses a novel conditioning technique to develop methods for training large groups of naïve native fish to recognize catfish and bass as predators. We utilize the alarm pheromone present in many groups of fish to rapidly train prey fish to fear a predator by adding the alarm pheromone into a tank of prey fish at the same time as we add a predator fish. We do not want to let predators eat prey fish during training, so we inject key jaw musculature with botulinum toxin to paralyze the muscles that allow rapid jaw opening. This results in bass that can capture floating feed pellets but are unable to open their mouths quickly enough to capture fish. Groups of trained and untrained fish are put into a pond, and live predators are released into the pond and allowed to feed for 24 hours.

Though this work is ongoing, our current results suggest both bonytail and razorbacks can be conditioned to recognize non-native predators and this conditioning improves survival in 24 hour survival challenges. Approximately 55% of untrained bonytail survive 24 hours in a pond with largemouth bass, while nearly 80% of trained fish survive. Channel catfish are less successful at capturing bonytail, but conditioning still improves survival (85% untrained survival compared to nearly 100% trained).

The Arizona Game and Fish Department produced a video for the Arizona Wildlife Views television program titled “A Better Shot at Survival” which can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJQVwN2AGXQ

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In addition to predators, there are other sources of mortality for hatchery reared fish. Fish that have been raised in a still-water environment (tanks and ponds) are not likely to be able to hold position in a swiftly-flowing stream. Flow condition, or exercising fish in flowing water for several weeks before stocking, has been shown to improve the ability of fish to maintain position in a stream, so BNPFCF biologists now exercise all fish prior to stocking. Luke Avery’s MS thesis at Northern Arizona University studied the fate of exercised and unexercised fish and found that training may help fish keep station in the swiftly flowing Fossil Creek (Avery, Ward, and Marks 2011).

Our hatchery fish are raised in circular fiberglass tanks and are used to being fed throughout a day. These fish don’t know that they can and should use structure to avoid threats, and they may not be able to locate and capture their own food. This is a much harder challenge for a hatchery to overcome due to the density of fish required in intensive culture. In order to mimic wild environments and encourage fish to find their own food, we are attempting to use very long raceways with lower fish densities and multiple fish species to allow for competition. These tanks are equipped with live plants, sediment, woody debris, and other natural structures to best mimic the natural environment where fish will be stocked. Feeding is minimized and performed through a belt feeder to reduce their attraction to humans walking past the tank.

The chub species of the genus Gila have a complex evolutionary history. Species that are currently described as species, particularly Gila robusta and Gila nigra, are nearly indistinguishable morphologically, and genetic analyses have been unable to identify relationships that separate species. Like most native fishes, the number and size of chub populations across the southwest have declined dramatically due to altered hydrology regimes and non-native species. Understanding the genetic relationships between species and populations is critical to effective management, and the potential listing of these species as threatened or endangered makes this knowledge paramount. We are working with Joshua Copus, Dr. Brian Bowen, and Dr. Robert Toonen at the University of Hawaii to use next generation sequencing to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to help determine the relationships between species and populations of this group. Please see the ToBo Lab website for more information on these techniques.

BPNFCF provides a variety of outreach opportunities for the general public, students, and professionals. We present displays with live fish at a variety of public events, including the Verde River Days and the Flagstaff Festival of Science. We also provide live fish for classroom educational opportunities, and we offer tours for class visits from local schools. We conduct an annual fish identification class to provide a hands on identification opportunity for state, federal, and academic fish biologists. Finally, we present our research findings at a variety of public and professional meetings, including the Science on Tap seminar series, local chapter meetings of the American Fisheries Society, and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists meeting.

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The Bureau of Reclamation, which has funded BPNFCF since 2007, has chosen to improve the BPNFCF operation with a massive overhaul of the existing hatchery. Beginning in late 2015, the majority of our outdoor spawning tanks will be removed and replaced with aquaculture-grade fiberglass tanks and PVC-lined ponds. We will also install a new steel building and add a number of other improvements to the facility. These changes will enable us to more safely treat, hold, and propagate all eight extant lineages of loach minnow, three extant lineages of spikedace, and multiple lineages of chub species.

BPNFCF biologists work with and support many state, federal, and academic groups to conduct a variety of research projects. Current and past collaborations include work with Dr. Alice Gibb, Dr. Linn Montgomery, and Dr. Angie Moline and their students at Northern Arizona University, Dr. Scott Bonar and his lab at the University of Arizona, Dr. Julian Olden and his students at the University of Washington, Dr. Robert Toonen and Josh Copus at the University of Hawaii, David Ward at the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center (USGS), Dr. Anne Brasher at the Utah Water Science Center (USGS), and Kirk Young at the Arizona Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (FWS). We are always interested and open to new projects, so please contact us if you have interest in collaborating on desert fish research.

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As part of AGFD’s Research Branch, BPNFCF biologists have unique flexibility to develop new techniques for solving a wide variety of problems. For example, we have used remote controlled aircraft to deter piscivorous cormorants from feeding on razorbacks at the Bubbling Ponds Fish Hatchery. We are also using 3D printers to create a number of items useful for hatchery operations.

Using 3D illustration programs and a 3D printer purchased with personal money, we have developed auger-driven automatic fish feeders, larval fish traps, a metabolic flow chamber, and a variety of replacement parts for use around the hatchery. As we were able to demonstrate the success and utility of the printer to our funding agency, we received permission to purchase a printer with hatchery operating funds, and now we are able to create items in both PLA (private printer) and ABS (hatchery-purchased printer). When fully realized, the autofeeder project alone will save us more than $10,000 off the cost of purchasing less effective commercial fish feeders. The custom larval traps will improve everyday hatchery operations immensely, and our other projects are already helping save costs with new and replacement plastic pieces.

Furthermore, recent legal changes allow the department to sell items. Please contact us if you are interested in buying 3D printed items through the Arizona Game and Fish Department, where proceeds will go to the AGFD general fund (ABS plastic on the state-owned printer). We are also using our privately purchased printer to make items for sale, such as a native fish cookie cutter set. All funds from private sales will go directly to BPNFCF operations through Matt and Josh (PLA plastic on the privately-owned printer).

aznativefish@gmail.com

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There are two employees that work at Bubbling Ponds Native Fish Conservation Facility: Matt O'Neill, who manages the facility, and Josh Walters, a wildlife technician. We love our native fish and are happy to be a part of their conservation!

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